Apple has responded to concerns spreading across internet blogs regarding the health of Steve Jobs after photos taken Monday at the WWDC conference in San Francisco show him looking a little more frail than usual.

Specifically, the Wall Street Journal points to a headline on the Drudge Report that read "Concern over Apple Steve Jobss physical appearance, which linked to photos of the chief executive without further comment.

Responding to questions on the matter Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Cupertino-based electronics maker told the financial paper that Jobs has been plagued by a "common bug" in recent weeks, but that he felt it essential that he make good on delivering the opening keynote address at the annual Apple developer conference and personally take the wraps off the company's new 3G iPhone.

Jobs's physical health has been an on-again, off-again topic of discussion ever since he was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer four years ago, which he beat after undergoing a successful surgery.

Investors and Apple loyalists pay particular attention to the chief executive's appearance because they consider him to be irreplaceable to the company he rescued from the doldrums a little over ten years ago. Not helping matters are reports that Jobs hid his battle with cancer for a full nine months before informing shareholders and anyone outside his most intimate of inner circles.

Photo taken of Steve Jobs Monday | Copyright REUTERS/Kimberly White..

Last year, financial publication Barron's suggested that Jobs may be worth more to Apple than any other chief executive in the world, estimating that Apple's market cap would instantly bleed $20 billion in value should he abruptly be forced to abandon his leadership role at the company.

The last time Apple provided an update on Jobs's health was nearly two years ago when similar concerns began to mount following his appearance at the 2006 Apple developers conference. At the time, the company's VP of worldwide corporate communications Katie Cotton downplayed the concerns, saying Jobs's health was "robust."

This response from Apple is loaded beyond belief. It's a non-denial denial. They didn't say he was healthy. They didn't say he was cancer free. They said he had a "common bug," which might well be true, but it wouldn't seem that it's the whole truth.

I'm very concerned.

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look good either.

but Phil Schiller - stop taking Steve's lunch and picking from his plate.
Phil gets fatter at every Keynote and Steve has been getting thinner over the last year. Best wishes Steve and good health. Phil - time for biggest loser.

Colonel Sanders was KFC. Steve Jobs is Apple. You do the math. Sorry to have to spell it out for you.

I'm aware of that, but the tech industry changes far more quickly than the fast food industry changes. You do the math. Sorry to have to spell it out for you.

What KFC does and how it presents itself hasn't had to change much, if at all in a decade. I can probably buy the same bucket of grease today that I had two decades ago. Apple has basically recast itself two or three times in the last decade.

One of the flus that went around this year had a much higher pneumonia rate as your typical flu virus. (Among children with that strain it was like 30%+ developing pneumonia.) My son got it and the pedeatrician considered putting him on "preventive antibiotics" but decided to wait a couple days. He didn't end up needing it, but he's generally a very healthy boy.

I can imagine a cancer survivor going on antibiotics to prevent pneumonia in the case of any sort of serious chest cold, so this doesn't really surprise me.

YES. I had that flu, it turned into acute bronchitis, and put me down for six straight weeks. I was out from Late Feb through march. Its still going around, and took Lenny Kravitz out of commission earlier this year as well.

I personally lost 12 pounds while down with it. On my 200lb frame, not so bad. On Jobs' skinny ass, MUCH worse-looking.

Steve would sooner die in his chair than let go of Apple. You know this is true.

Colonel Sanders was KFC. Steve Jobs is Apple. You do the math. Sorry to have to spell it out for you.

The comparison doesn't really hold because the recipe stays the same year over year. The only thing they need to do is alter their marketing. Tech companies have to keep innovating. Id est, the "ingredients" in the Machintosh 128k are not in any current Macs.

I see three positions if you want to make an argument that Apple will thrive after Jobs is gone.

Jobs has hired like minded people to push his legacy.

The inertia that Jobs has set in motion with the Mac revival and the new iPhone will continue to benefit Apple for years to come.

You can use a better example that shows that evolving tech and brand can be further enhanced after the original founders are long gone. Relevant examples could be: C.S. Rolls and Henry Royce's legacy; Benz, Daimler and Maybach legacy; and Sōichirō Honda.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

What KFC does and how it presents itself hasn't had to change much, if at all in a decade. I can probably buy the same bucket of grease today that I had two decades ago.

I agree with your main point, but maybe it's because we're 2000 miles from Kentucky, but KFC's quality was marginal two decades ago, and atrocious now--and getting worse by the year. Hopefully Apple wouldn't go the same way.

"As a physician who's seen lots of sick people, I question whether he just has "a bug." He has what's called temporal wasting, where the muscle tissue at the temples get reabsorbed. This usually happens with significant malnutrition, cancer, or other serious illnesses. (You can see it in advanced age as well). Who knows, but he doesn't just look like someone who had a stomach bug for a week or so."
Posted by: Mark N | Jun 12, 2008 9:56:13 AM

Well, I am sure that the day Steve gives up the reigns, Apple will roll out Steve 2.0 which will be sort of like L.C. Data but powered by an iPhone. Of course it'll have Steve's signature turtleneck, jeans, and phraseology, "We are so excited...", "This blows away the other platforms...".
and the stock rolls on...

The comparison doesn't really hold because the recipe stays the same year over year. The only thing they need to do is alter their marketing. Tech companies have to keep innovating. Id est, the "ingredients" in the Machintosh 128k are not in any current Macs.

I see three positions if you want to make an argument that Apple will thrive after Jobs is gone.

Jobs has hired like minded people to push his legacy.

The inertia that Jobs has set in motion with the Mac revival and the new iPhone will continue to benefit Apple for years to come.

You can use a better example that shows that evolving tech and brand can be further enhanced after the original founders are long gone. Relevant examples could be: C.S. Rolls and Henry Royce's legacy; Benz, Daimler and Maybach legacy; and Sōichirō Honda.

A virtual Steve Jobs will exist after he departs as the virtual Colonel Sanders does now. It has nothing to to do with recipes staying the same- for god's sake! It all about product branding- HELLO? Most people especially 97.5% those on this website cannot think Apple without visualizing Steve Jobs. Don't worry- his likeness will still digitally give you those keynotes of his that you crave (which by the way are really presented with the same hype year after year and really are a recipe, I hate to inform you).

YES. I had that flu, it turned into acute bronchitis, and put me down for six straight weeks. I was out from Late Feb through march. Its still going around, and took Lenny Kravitz out of commission earlier this year as well.

I personally lost 12 pounds while down with it. On my 200lb frame, not so bad. On Jobs' skinny ass, MUCH worse-looking.

Steve would sooner die in his chair than let go of Apple. You know this is true.

FWIW: Steve used to carry atleast 185lbs on his body and looked very fit. I'd say he's around 145lb in that photo.

I think it is pretty clear that Steve is sick with more than a "bug". All indicators point in the same direction; his limited time on stage, his weight and general demeanor, and the lack of pep visible in the whole group. These guys usually have fun on stage together, here they were off-key.

Given this, first and foremost we should remember that the #1 stakeholders in his health and survival are his children, his wife, and his friends and extended family. To his children especially, his loss would be a terrible thing.

Yet some of us have "adopted" Steve into our "virtual" family, for lack of a better term. Steve has encouraged this through the years. We may not be his friends or family, but a lot of us would feel his loss personally nonetheless. I've been following Apple and Steve since about 1978, sometimes as a user and often not, and by no means a fanboy. But this week made me see just how much of a reference point Steve has been for me during this time. I work in the software industry and have regularly seen people in the business amazed and surprised by Apple.

I believe this will continue to be the case for many years, regardless of Steve's future. He indicated he has made his peace with this in his appearance last year with Bill Gates, when he noted that more history is now behind him than in front of him. I am sure he has taken whatever steps will be required to ensure Apple's continuity as a true innovator.

Some of you think this is not the case. You compare with 1985 and Sculley's beige boxes, but there is no comparison. In 1985 Steve was not nearly as wise, nor was Apple having anything like its current success. There was infighting in the company, the IBM PC was dominating the market, and Apple was still selling Apple II derivatives at the same time as Mac/Lisa machines. It was Jobs, after all, who had the poor judgment to hire Sculley in the first place. For all his talent and vision, Jobs wasn't quite ready for CEO prime time back then, and the Apple business model was neither successful nor mature in anything near its current form. Apple made unique products and the Apple II had been a hit largely thanks to VisiCalc, a spreadsheet of all things, but it was losing market share and relevance. There were hints of greatness, but the greatness wasn't there yet.

People like Sculley thought they could do things better on the basis that Apple wasn't doing so well. Today, nobody would think that way; not even Sculley. In any case Jobs, older but wiser, hasn't surrounded himself with mediocre Sculleys. Apple's product development model is now seen as its principal asset, and everybody inside and outside the company knows this. Further, Apple has got the people and a road map good for at least five years of development, or ten if no disruptive technology comes along. Given the human resources of the company, I would not be surprised if it kept innovating well beyond that time frame. It will take a brain dead bean counter to kill it. That may happen eventually, but not any time soon.

We should hope for the best. I'm sure Steve has the best medical care and with any luck his condition may not be that serious. But if the worst happens we should think first of his family. And then we should not underestimate the capacity of the company he built to continue to surprise us for a long, long time.

I see three positions if you want to make an argument that Apple will thrive after Jobs is gone.

Jobs has hired like minded people to push his legacy.

The inertia that Jobs has set in motion with the Mac revival and the new iPhone will continue to benefit Apple for years to come.

- Anything I've ever read about those who have worked with Steve Jobs says that he does NOT hire likeminded people. He hires the absolute best Getting-Things-Done operators he can find. There isn't anyone in the executive room (headcount is now 12) that actually overlaps what HE is inexplicably excellent at too closely. Phil is the best bet from addresses, but it's a much lamer public persona. I don't see how Tim Cook would do the job (Wall Street's probable #2).

- The inertia he created the first time did nothing to prevent the company from diminishing until T-Minus-6-months-to-Chapter-11 when he was bought back.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alonso Perez

We should hope for the best. I'm sure Steve has the best medical care and with any luck his condition may not be that serious. But if the worst happens we should think first of his family. And then we should not underestimate the capacity of the company he built to continue to surprise us for a long, long time.

He tried to beat cancer in 2003 by adding different vegetables to his diet until Board and wifey convinced him otherwise \. He is known to loathe modern medicine.

- The inertia he created the first time did nothing to prevent the company from diminishing until T-Minus-6-months-to-Chapter-11 when he was bought back.

Well, my point was that there was no inertia created the first time. Apple was a market lightweight with frequent production problems. This is the period where Apple fans began to be derided, for they saw something that wasn't quite there yet, like a shared illusion. Time proved that what they saw was indeed there, but it was not obvious in 1985. Not only wasn't it obvious, but to a typical MBA it was plainly invisible, while a typical marketer thought it was merely a branding thing. Think about it, not just Sculley, but also the board and key Apple players truly thought Jobs was a problem, and that they could handle the company better.

Today it's completely different. Everybody gets it, and the value of his way of doing things is unquestioned. They will bend over backwards to do WWHD.

Well, my point was that there was no inertia created the first time. Apple was a market lightweight with frequent production problems. This is the period where Apple fans began to be derided, for they saw something that wasn't quite there yet, like a shared illusion. Time proved that what they saw was indeed there, but it was not obvious in 1985. Not only wasn't it obvious, but to a typical MBA it was plainly invisible, while a typical marketer thought it was merely a branding thing. Think about it, not just Sculley, but also the board and key Apple players truly thought Jobs was a problem, and that they could handle the company better.

Today it's completely different. Everybody gets it, and the value of his way of doing things is unquestioned. They will bend over backwards to do WWHD.

Yes. This is the optimistic conception of the inevitable change of hands.

The corporate culture will change, though. There's a definitely a chance he has imparted some of his vision, but ultimately, at the human level, more people will be given breaks for not QUITE matching up the Pantone values and pixel alignment on interface changes, new products may play it safer (lol USB-only for the new Mac? <-DECADE LATER-> lol one USB port and a headphone jack and no removable battery?), and they may not have the same unbending restraint from releasing more overlapping computers and products that don't quite stack up neatly as a business model.

They also lose their best snap-negotiator, so I see fewer headlines declaring things like, "AT&T may have risked too much in deal" or "Labels bow to fixed track pricing over WiMax," post-Jobs.

There's a definitely a chance he has imparted some of his vision, but ultimately, at the human level, more people will be given breaks for not QUITE matching up the Pantone values and pixel alignment on interface changes.

You know this how? Jobs is hardly the only perfectionist at Apple. This is the least likely problem. Some of your other comments may have more bearing. But consider the new iPhone pricing scheme is industry-standard. Jobs or no Jobs, Apple could not impose its model for the iPhone.

Perhaps a risk is that Apple will try to be more Jobs than Jobs. Many mistakes can be made. On the other hand, Apple has got to figure it out sooner or later. Let's say Steve Jobs is fine and stays at the helm for 20 years. Are you so sure he will still know what people want? He's been cool to social networking, for instance. I'm cool to it as well, but I'm in my 40's. At work I see a clear generational divide with things like Facebook and Twitter, even though every last person in my company is comfortable with technology.

Times change. We've been witness to a brilliant run and with any luck it will continue for many years. But eventually it will morph into something else. Better or worse? Who knows? You don't know and I don't know, but Apple's near future is not at risk.

You know this how? Jobs is hardly the only perfectionist at Apple. This is the least likely problem. Some of your other comments may have more bearing. But consider the new iPhone pricing scheme is industry-standard. Jobs or no Jobs, Apple could not impose its model for the iPhone.

Perhaps a risk is that Apple will try to be more Jobs than Jobs. Many mistakes can be made. On the other hand, Apple has got to figure it out sooner or later. Let's say Steve Jobs is fine and stays at the helm for 20 years. Are you so sure he will still know what people want? He's been cool to social networking, for instance. I'm cool to it as well, but I'm in my 40's. At work I see a clear generational divide with things like Facebook and Twitter, even though every last person in my company is comfortable with technology.

Maybe Apple will miss the next "boat", but I don't think Apple really needs to do anything special for social networking. Apple can't do everything, and I'm not convinced that social networking sites are a good long term business model. Facebook might be thought of as the third major generation of social networking. That kind of web site seems to come and go. What Apple can do to support social networking is make a top quality web client, and Safari does pretty good for that.

Maybe Apple will miss the next "boat", but I don't think Apple really needs to do anything special for social networking.

I don't think so either. But that's sort of my point. Maybe I'm wrong. All the under-30 kids at the office have incorporated it into their daily, hourly lives. I have no idea what that use pattern will evolve into in the future; it's like another language. Maybe it's an inconsequential fad, and to me it's pretty pointless, but maybe it isn't.

Social networking was just an example. I'm saying that even with Jobs, Apple can easily miss new trends. Nobody is infallible.

Ever since he was treated for cancer, Apple has been trotting out other officers in these presentations, trying to plan for a transition. It seemed especially true this time when Jobs did less than half of the Keynote.

It's just a shame that I was just left thinking "When's Steve going to be back on stage?"

He looks like he's about to kick off any day now, and when he's gone, Apple is fucked. We saw what happens when Apple is run by a typical American CEO: instead of looking years ahead when planning investments and R&D, American CEOs look ahead to the next quarter's profit report. Slowly but surely, Job's replacement will fritter away Apple's reputation and quality. Apple will coast for a few years on current successes, but the innovation will end and Apple will try to compete on their competitor's terms by cheapening their products, conforming to "market forces," and generally taking the spice out of Apple's products.

Enjoy Macs now, because in 10 years we'll all be hanging on to a dying platform while Microsoft makes a killing on all the cheesy crap they copied from Apple and then improved.

So, I guess you haven't heard of the health effects of the caloric restriction diet. You just wanted to make a low class uneducated swipe at someone using an ancient history formerly hot-button celebrity death.

He looks like he's about to kick off any day now, and when he's gone, Apple is fucked. We saw what happens when Apple is run by a typical American CEO: instead of looking years ahead when planning investments and R&D, American CEOs look ahead to the next quarter's profit report. Slowly but surely, Job's replacement will fritter away Apple's reputation and quality. Apple will coast for a few years on current successes, but the innovation will end and Apple will try to compete on their competitor's terms by cheapening their products, conforming to "market forces," and generally taking the spice out of Apple's products.

Enjoy Macs now, because in 10 years we'll all be hanging on to a dying platform while Microsoft makes a killing on all the cheesy crap they copied from Apple and then improved.

What are you talking about? I don't think that the board are likely to appoint someone who cannot demonstrate a proper understanding of what Apple is and what Apple is all about.

You're a very pessimistic person... it's all doom and gloom. Steve Jobs has proven that he's an exceptionally intelligent man, with an uncanny ability to be about 30 steps ahead of everyone else. If - and take SPECIAL NOTE of the use of the word "if" - he really is ill again, I doubt it's escaped his attention. There's every confidence in my mind that he and the board have a succession/contingency plan in place should anything happen to him. They know how valuable he is... that's why they wouldn't just replace him with a... what did you say? "typical American CEO".

That is because Hiro's comment makes no sense. Social networking has been around long before the internet, the coining of said term or even writing on cave walls in France. It's basis for pretty much everything we do in society.

Will social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook fall like Live Journal, Friendster, Six Degrees and all that came in between? Most likely, but another will be there to take its place. Both do seem to be doing a significantly better job on improving the experience and options for web users as the internet grows more complex. It looks like the web might have grown up enough to allow these two sites in particular to keep evolving with the times so a new idea for web-based social networking won't be as easy to usurp these sites like they did to others in the past.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"